Chapter 265: Knot Break

Just as Kael was thinking about it, everyone heard Orivian’s voice again, coming from every direction within the Domain. "Now then, let’s kill you lots one by one..." The moment those words reached them, everyone immediately became more cautious.

They stopped communicating even through telepathy, since there was always a possibility that Orivian could listen to their thoughts or conversations while they were inside his Domain.

Kael frowned slightly as he looked around. ’He can supposedly kill all of us without any difficulty, so why does he sound like he can’t do that right now? And why does he want to kill us one by one?’ He couldn’t understand the reason behind Orivian’s behavior.

Someone of his level, especially inside his own Domain where he was practically a God, shouldn’t have any reason to enjoy slowly killing them when he could eliminate everyone almost instantly.

’There is something wrong here...’

Kael immediately noticed that detail. Orivian had trapped all of them inside his Domain, and judging from what the System had already told him, there should have been no reason for Orivian to delay killing them. Yet he hadn’t done anything when they first entered the Domain. Instead, he had waited before finally announcing that he would kill them one by one.

’What could it be?’ Before Kael could think any further, a scream suddenly came from nearby.

"GAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

It was Thorsin.

The Dwarven King’s scream spread throughout the Domain as his body suddenly lifted from the ground. His arms and legs became completely loose as though he had lost control over his own body. The other rulers immediately moved away from their original positions and appeared several meters farther away, but before they could understand what had happened, they saw something that made all of them become tense.

A translucent figure was slowly emerging from Thorsin’s mouth.

It looked exactly like Thorsin.

They immediately recognized it, it was his...Soul.

Orivian was pulling Thorsin’s Soul directly out of his body without even appearing in front of them.

The rulers understood what that meant almost immediately. If Orivian could take someone’s Soul from a distance without even showing himself, then there was almost nothing they could do to protect themselves while they remained inside this Domain.

Sylvaris reacted first.

For the first time since entering the battlefield, she finally made a move. "I can’t let a ruler of one of the current Continents die like this, it would throw the World into chaos, although the contract was severed between all the continents, it is an Ancient’s sole duty to not let a ruler die unless it is some war between the continents themselves."

She appeared directly in front of Thorsin’s body and the Soul that was still being pulled out of him. Without wasting any time, Sylvaris snapped her fingers. The space around Thorsin immediately twisted, and the fabric of time and space bent around his entire body before his presence suddenly disappeared.

Kael, Atlas, and the other rulers watched from farther away with slight confusion. None of them had expected Sylvaris to simply remove Thorsin from the Domain like that, and for a moment, they couldn’t even determine where she had sent him.

Sylvaris then looked toward the ashen Rings surrounding them before shifting her gaze toward the Halo above, "I won’t deny that you are the strongest being I have ever met in my entire life, and you are from a Progenitor race at that. But I can’t allow you to kill the rulers like this. Most importantly, if you really wanted to kill all of us, you could have done that long ago, couldn’t you?"

There was no response.

Sylvaris continued without changing her expressio, "It means you want something. What do you want?"

A few seconds passed before Orivian’s voice finally came from the surroundings, "You are quite sharp, well...I want a Soul. The Soul of that boy. From what I observed, he isn’t affiliated with any of you, so do me a favor and hand his Soul over to me. If you do that, I won’t kill any of you."

His voice remained calm as he continued, "But if you refuse, then I’ll have to kill all of you and take your Souls instead. As for him, I’ll destroy his Soul completely. So then...what will you choose?"

The moment Orivian finished speaking, everyone’s eyes moved toward Atlas.

Atlas also looked toward the others, his expression remained calm, but his eyes narrowed slightly.

’Heh...It’s all the same.’ He had heard words like these before.

As a child, he had seen the way people looked at him when they wanted something from him. There had been looks of disgust, hatred, fear, and sometimes simple indifference. He had become familiar with those expressions long ago, so when everyone suddenly looked toward him after Orivian’s demand, he didn’t feel surprised.

’It hasn’t changed at all...’ Atlas lowered his head slightly.

For some reason, his thoughts suddenly shifted toward Seraphiel. He remembered the way she had looked at him, the way she had treated him, and the future he had seen through her memories.

’Would she also look at me like this?’ The question appeared inside his mind before he could stop it.

From what he had seen in that future, Seraphiel supposedly loved him. But if she were standing in the same position as everyone else right now, with Orivian demanding his Soul in exchange for her own life, would she really choose not to kill him?

Atlas remained silent for a moment as the next moment the answer came naturally, ’She would never try to kill me.’ After all, she was the person who had put her own life on the line to save his. Someone like that choosing to kill him simply because another person demanded it would make no sense.

’Would I ever be able to repay this kind of debt?’ Before Atlas could think about it any further, Solaris suddenly spoke.

"No, we can’t do that. My best friend seemingly fell madly in love with him. If I tried to kill him, which seems impossible at this moment anyway, Seraphiel would be the one to kill me later."

Atlas’s eyes widened as he looked toward Solaris. He had been prepared to hear the same things he had heard throughout his childhood, but Solaris wasn’t looking at him as though he were something that could simply be sacrificed.

For the first time, Atlas felt as though someone was actually looking at him considering him as a... person.

Before he could think about it further, Zaakrax spoke, "The same goes for me. I can’t do that. After all, I’ve put quite a large amount of leverage on him, which he will realize the value of later."

Atlas turned toward Zaakrax.

The Dragon Emperor was smiling as he looked at him.

Atlas understood what Zaakrax meant. The debt between them wasn’t some ordinary contract where both sides had to maintain equal terms. If Zaakrax wanted to, he could still choose to sacrifice Atlas right now.

But he...didn’t want to?

Atlas stared at him for several seconds before finally accepting that Zaakrax wasn’t lying. Before he could say anything, Kael suddenly spoke from nearby, "Oh ho ho, I get it! You’re a coward bastard who wants to kill the single person you can’t kill yourself because of his special abilities. My, how much of a coward you are."

Eliana, who was floating slightly farther away, immediately laughed behind her hand after hearing her disciple’s words.

Atlas couldn’t help but glance toward Kael. Even in this situation, that guy still had the nerve to insult someone like Orivian.

Then another voice came from behind them, "I also won’t kill him."

Velmira finally stepped forward after remaining silent through the previous exchange, "After all, he is from our Human Continent, the Continent whose people’s protection is my sole duty. And most importantly..." Her eyes became slightly colder as she looked toward the Halo. "The one who will be dying is you, not him."

Atlas remained silent as he looked at Velmira before shifting his gaze toward Solaris, then Zaakrax, Kael, and Eliana.

Finally, his eyes returned to Velmira, but he still couldn’t understand why they were saying these things about him. He had already expected them to choose the easier option, to simply hand him over so they could survive, because that was what he had always known people to do.

A single tear slowly escaped from his eye.

Before it could fall any further, the Flames of Nothingness surrounding his body erased it completely. Another tear appeared from his other eye and disappeared in the same way, followed by another and then another.

Atlas didn’t try to stop them anymore, because he didn’t even understand why they were coming out in the first place.

He simply remained there and stared at them while the tears came out.

For the first time in his life, people had been given a reason to sacrifice him, yet none of them had chosen to do it. They weren’t looking at him as a tool, nor as something that could simply be discarded when it became convenient.

They were looking at him as a person, and somehow, that simple fact was enough to finally break the Knot he had carried inside his heart for all these years.